The recent article by NPR, Flattening The 'Mummy Tummy' With 1 Exercise, 10 Minutes A Day, starts off with a sensational, grabbing title. A click bait title that we wouldn't expect from a trusted news source like NPR. But it certainly got your attention, especially if you recently had a baby and now are feeling a little weak around the core. And since this is NPR this should be safer than something random you pull off the internet, right? Well, yes and no.
With addiction, deep fractures are drawn between our mind and our body, our needs and our habits, our emotions and our actions, and in the relationships that we have to ourselves and to others. Yoga, on the other hand, is connection.
It's a great time to pay attention to how stress is affecting you. Common stressors include work, family, money, children, illness and more. Stress can impact both your body and your mind causing symptoms such as muscular pain, irritability, fatigue, and headaches. Here's how we can help...
According to CDC data, 32% of women delivering a baby did so via C-section in 2015. Some of these are elective (planned) & others unplanned or emergent. If you are one of the 32%, what can you expect following a C-section?
Do you feel like your insurance coverage gets more confusing each year? That’s probably because it does! It seems like each year there is another rule or exception to your plan but the cost keeps going up. Here at Jade, we are often asked, “how much will this cost?” The answer isn’t as easy at it seems.
Early recovery is raw and vulnerable. It is a time to detox, fight triggers, and literally put days behind you, as you work to regain physical and mental wellness. The mind often "reads" silence as a signal to get "chatty" or fill the void with conversations, many times fueled by feelings of regret, judgment, etc. Practicing quiet yoga can help to support conversations of a self-love, self-accepting nature.
Hello and welcome to the first in a series of posts designed to assist dancers in maximizing performance while achieving and maintaining wellness. This first installment is about preventing injury. Due to the high impact of an injury to a dancer’s life, a holistic approach to a preventative program is important.
It's 1 a.m. and you are awake. Your mind is racing, your body can't seem to get comfortable and you have to wake up in 5 hours...sound familiar? Don't worry, you're not alone. Instead of staying in bed praying to every possible Hindu god you can recall for sleep to come, roll out your mat and practice these 5 calming yoga poses to help lull you back to sleep.
Come into table top position (hands and knees on the floor). Close your eyes. Inhale, arch your back as your head gently tilts upward towards the ceiling. Exhale, round your back, tucking your chin and pelvis as your spread across your shoulder blades. Repeat for 10 breaths.
Benefits: Gently massages the spine and belly organs.
From table top, widen the knees and bring the toes together as you slowly lower the hips down towards the heals.* Stretch the arms out in front resting the elbows on the floor. Stay here for 1-3 minutes.
* For tight hips or sensitive knees, place a folded blanket behind the knees or a block between the feet.
Benefits: Calms the mind and helps relieve stress and fatigue.
Come to seated with both legs out in front. Draw your right knee in and fold open to the side. Place both hands on either side of the left leg. On your inhale, lift and twist the upper body towards the left foot, on your exhale; slowly fold forward at your hip joints. Stay here for 1-3 minutes and then switch sides.
* For tighter hamstring, come to seated on a blanket for this pose.
Benefits: Calms the mind and helps relieve mild depression, anxiety, fatigue, headache and menstrual discomfort.
For this calming pose, you can flip around in bed and extend the legs up the wall, or find some empty wall space in your room. Come to seated on the floor with your knees in and your right side against the wall. On your next exhale, slowly slide the upper body to the floor pivoting the legs so they rest against the wall with the bottoms of the feet facing the ceiling (see image above). Sit bones should be against the wall (if comfortable). For added comfort under the hips, press the heels into the wall to lift the hips and place a blanket underneath. Stay here for 3-5 minutes.
Benefits: Calms the mind and eases anxiety and reduces stress.
If you're not there already, make your way back to your bed and lay down on your back. Spread your feet a little wider than hip distance apart and slide your arms a few inches from your body, palms facing up. Close your eyes and allow your breath to be soft and natural. Slowly begin to work your attention up your body, relaxing each muscle from the tips of your toes all the way to the top of your head, ultimately allowing your body to slowly melt into the bed. Stay for 5-10 minutes, or until you fall asleep.
Benefits: Calms the mind and relaxes the body. Also helps relieve stress, mild depression, headache, fatigue, and insomnia.
For added relaxation, here is a great Guided Yoga Nidra Audio from Yoga Journal to put on when you are finished with your poses and laying in Savasana.
In preparation for our big event this weekend at the first ever Maine Yoga Festival, Jade Integrated Health has added an array of new workshops all starting up late summer and into the fall! Offerings range from our popular Parent & Child yoga/massage workshop to advanced workshops for instructors to brush up on Anatomy, as well as Arm Balance Integration. We didn’t forget about our students who love to keep it simple either! Check out our new workshops here and see why yoga at Jade Integrated Health is different…..
See you in the fall!
Jade Integrated Health
